This invention relates to a control device for flat knitting machines of the type having at least two pairs of consecutively arranged needle beds and a plurality of knit carriages circulating in one direction above the needle beds and each including control rods cooperating with control elements fixedly arranged outside the pairs of beds to displace the knit carriages according to the desired functions of the machine and according to the knitted design.
From the German Pat. No. 1 015 176, a flat bed knitting machine is known having two consecutively arranged pairs of needle beds and a plurality of knit carriages circulating in one direction above the needle beds to control automatically the operation of the knitting machine and the design of the knitted product such as for example the position of cams and the exchange of the yarn. For this purpose, the knit carriage is provided with a set of superimposed control rods adjustable into several switching positions. These switching rods are actuated by means of stationary switching plates arranged between perspective needle bed pairs and each being provided with fixed guided means for the control rods. The switching plates are adjustable by means of a multi-track chain driven by a sprocket wheel. This arrangement necessitates that the sprocket wheel performs a switching movement for each of the knit carriages whereby before each adjustment the switching plates are released and after each adjustment the plates are locked. This solution employing displacable switching plates has the disadvantage that the switching plates cannot be re-adjusted before the knit carriage with its control bars has passed through. In addition, the fact that the movable switching plates have relatively large mass brings about disadvantageous effects. The movable control plates require large installation space in the machine. The adjustment and locking of each knit carriage in several positions requires considerable mechanical work and also requires considerable time. Consequently, there is set a limit to the increase of knitting speed as well as to the increase of the number of knit carriages because the time required for displacing the switching plates and for guiding the control valves would be too long.